Remembering Ghost In the Shell

Alright, I admit, when it comes to some animes, I could be a borderline junkie.

However, I am able to kick the habit enough to let me live a life outside the wired world. But still, there are times that no matter how we or some other people would try to get us off our chairs in front of the ‘puter, once we have had our behinds accustomed to it, it will always find its way back to the seat, thus, I am here once more, doing the thing I used to do with a pen and a notebook. Writing down notes, my thoughts and other what-nots.

I was practically obsessing over Saiunkoku Monogatari when it was airing.  It’s something that is very close to Fushigi-Yuugi but never comes in the regions of how much I used to sorta’ hated it(Fushigi) at all. I used to find myself being squeamish everytime my cousins would start going gaga over Tamahome and Miyaka, but with Saimono that recently came to a close, I found myself even participating in discussions about it. It must be the politics in the anime that got me glued on it… got me back to scouring through the virtual treasure chests just to find good fan subs.

Anyway, animes that are politically directed has been a genre that I like. The politics in Saimono is practically as twisted as that of Ghost In The Shell to a certain degree. The underlying baseline shows how characters can basically be a puppet of the society.  Pretty evident in both series.

For GitS, Major Kusanagi is a single tracked agent who only wishes her missions successful. She is a daredevil who would follow her leads whether it be dangerous or not. She actually does not want to work with partners because she says partners can either be a good thing or bad. Good if she has a partner, good if she doesn’t.

Despite that, however, she values her team. She leads the operation and she expects her team to act as how they are directed to. She trusts their judgment, but she would always be the one to go for the kill, unless Batou would tell her to step back.

While Major Kusanagi practically has two shells, the kid and the adult Kusanagi who barely wears anything but a girdle, a pair of boots that ride up to her thigh and a jacket.

The little girl was her very first shell. The one that she had when she decided to have her brain transplanted in order for her life to be spared. She has become an cyborg at a very young age… more of a machine than human.

Batou, on the other hand, only has his arms in cybernetics. In a strange way, there is a caring beyond normal between Kusanagi and Batou. I would even say it is love, only that the major is no longer capable of feeling and having deep emotions.

My favorite part about GITS is when Batou socializes with his pets. The Tachikomas. They are just so cute. They have become like children to him. They are Artificially intelligent. They are capable of learning by themselves, adapt and develop their own identities. This, however, is not supposed to happen. They are not supposed to crave for individual identities since they are supposed to be weapons of war. They are tanks, for crying out loud! What could be worse than a conscience-bearing tank that freaks out just before a battle begins?

They are still cute, nonetheless. In their search for individuality, it earned them a trip to the lab for them to be reset. They are not supposed to be consciously perceiving. They have become suspicious of Major Kusanagi and started stalking her, feeling that she does not like them anymore, as they grow more and get exposed more to people with whom they have come in contact with in their missions.

“Batou, sir” they’d often say… the ultimate sacrifice is to lay down your life for the person you care for. They did this. When they were already in the outside world, earning themselves a living, they caught wind that Batou was in danger. They tracked him and protected him, taking the bullet for their precious mentor.  Towards the end of the series, the organization has to be disbanded because they had to take the heat for some political issue.  They needed a scapegoat.

Strange as it may seem, the anime is far deeper than it is. In the world today, when technology is advancing, we sometimes tend to forget the “human” in us. What I like about Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex is that it shows that even non humans, be it androids or AI tanks, can actually be more human than we may sometimes be.

I may indeed be aging and starting to become a sentimental fool, but in the rush of our everyday lives, we sometimes tend to forget that we, too, need to be oiled and polished. When we are all stressed out and down, we need to take heed and take a breather to get us back on track to tackle whatever else lies ahead.